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CosmicVoyager
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Greetings,
What force keeps neutrons apart? And quarks? What keeps them from collapsing together?
Thanks
What force keeps neutrons apart? And quarks? What keeps them from collapsing together?
Thanks
I'm not sure about quarks, but in atomic nuclei and neutron stars, the Pauli exclusion principle prevents the collapse.CosmicVoyager said:Greetings,
What force keeps neutrons apart? And quarks? What keeps them from collapsing together?
Thanks
Jimmy Snyder said:I'm not sure about quarks, but in atomic nuclei and neutron stars, the Pauli exclusion principle prevents the collapse.
You are right. What I should have said is that if a neutron star doesn't collapse, it is because of the Pauli exclusion principle. However, if the star is massive enough it can collapse and then the answer to the question is that nothing keeps them (the neutrons) from collapsing together.mathman said:Unfortunately if a neutron star gets big enough, it becomes a black hole and what happens next is an open question.
The strong nuclear force is one of the four fundamental forces in nature, along with gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak nuclear force. It is responsible for holding the particles of an atom's nucleus together and is the strongest force in the universe.
The strong nuclear force overcomes the repulsive electromagnetic force between the positively charged protons in an atom's nucleus. It does this by binding the protons and neutrons together with gluons, the carriers of the strong force, which act as a "glue" that keeps the particles together.
If neutrons were not kept apart, they would be attracted to each other by the strong nuclear force. This would result in the collapse of the atom's nucleus and the formation of a neutron star, which has a much higher density than a regular star.
The strength of the strong nuclear force is determined by the distance between particles and the number of particles involved. The closer together the particles are, the stronger the force, and the more particles involved, the stronger the force is as well.
The strong nuclear force is very strong, but it can be overcome in certain conditions, such as in nuclear reactions or in high energy collisions. However, under normal circumstances, the strong force keeps neutrons apart and the nucleus stable.